Bajaur

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Bajaur

A tract of country in the Dir, Swat, and Chitral Agency, North-West Frontier Province, lying between 34 25' and 35 5' N. and 70 1/ and 72 E. It comprises five valleys: namely, Chaharmung, Babukara, Watalai (or Ut-lai), Rud in the valley of the Rud river, and the Sur Kamar valley, in which lies Nawagai. In the last, the Nawagai, Chamarkand, and Suran ravines unite to form the Pipal, or Ambahar river, which falls into the Swat some distance below its junction with the Panjkora. Bajaur is bounded on the north by the Panjkora river ; on the east by the Utman Khel and Mohmand territories, the latter also bordering it on the south ; and on the west by the crest of the eastern watershed of the Kunar river, which divides it from Afghanistan. Its population probably amounts to 100,000, and its area to nearly 5,000 square miles. Lying at a lower elevation than Dir, Bajaur has a smaller rainfall, and the snowfall on the range in which the affluents of the Rud take their rise is also slight. In consequence the hills are not well wooded ; and though the Rud, the most important of the five valleys, is very fertile, Babukara, Chaharmung, and YVatalai are not so productive. The history of the tract is dealt with in the article on Swat.

The Rud valley is peopled by various Pathan tribes, Tarkanri or Tarkilanri Yusufzai, Mohmands, Saris, Utman Khel, and others. Chaharmung and Babukara are held by the Salarzai, and Watalai by Mamunds, both sections of the Tarkanri. The political system, if it can be termed system, is a communal form of party government, subject to the control of the Khan of Nawagai, who is nominally the hereditary chief of all Bajaur. Under him the country is divided into several minor Khanates, each governed by a chieftain, usually a near relative of the Khan. But virtually the authority of the chieftains is limited to the rights to levy tithe, or uskar, when they can enforce its payment, and to exact military service if the tribesmen choose to render it. Public, or rather tribal, affairs are managed by the jirga or assembly of the party in power, and in this assembly each landowner has a vote.